The room was so quiet with the door locked that I started listening to the conversations to the people in the other rooms with nothing better to do.

"I'm sorry that your friend doesn't have much time left," The doctor delivered the bad news in the room beside me.

"She's so young," A familiar voice cried.

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"Is there no other way? Is it really hopeless?" Another person started to plead.

"Well there is this surgery your friend can receive that will extend her lifespan to about a decade. However, it is extremely expensive as not many skilled physicians in the second district have enough mana to do this surgery." The doctor continued grimly.

'Poor girl,' I thought.

The doctor must have left the room as the other room became silent. Unconnecting myself to the IV and pulling the useless oxygen mask off, I left the bed.

I peeked into the other room with great curiosity to find my kidnappers standing in front of a young girl on a hospital bed.

"You!" The girl yelled with great accus.e.m.e.nt.

"Let's make a deal," I tried to seem menacing.

"You need desperately need my money to save the girl in front of you and I need help to escape from this hospital." I continued.

"We'll think about it," The boy gruntly answered while holding the hands of the girl on the bed.

"Well seeing that you don't have any better option, I suggest you make your decision quickly. I'm in the room next door so just come by when you decide," I threatened them while leaving the room.

"I told you that children from the first district were creepy," The boy whispered softly to the girl.

I couldn't disagree but I was curious how they would react if they met the others in our inner circle that I considered to be much worse.

* * *

A girl wearing a white silky nightgown with fine strands of vermillion red hair looked like one of Melissa's dolls from her playhouse when she was younger. She stood in the middle of room barefoot with great confidence.

"Well seeing that you don't have any better option, I suggest you make your decision quickly. I'm in the room next door so just come by when you decide," The girl narrowed her bright pumpkin eyes and left the room.

"Melissa..." I whispered to her laying down on the bed.

'It's all my fault, I should've been the one that should be laying down on that bed,' I thought.

I stood under the bright blue sky that day. When I turned on the TV, all the weather forecasts announced that there would be no rain today. I didn't bring my umbrella and quickly ran out of my apartment to go to school.

"Melissa!" I shouted to greet my childhood friend.

Melissa stood there waiting in front of the entrance of my apartment with a perfectly ironed uniform that was tailored for her since the beginning of the year.

"Noire. You're finally here," Melissa pouted.

"Sorry... I overslept," I replied sheeply.

"It's only this time. I won't wait for you tomorrow!" Melissa sulked.

Melissa said this everyday, but she always waited for me in front of my apartment so we could walk together to school together.

My apartment was only a short distance away from the school. My parents got relocated to the outer region of the second district few months ago. Since I couldn't transfer schools, I ended up staying in the apartment alone.

We walked to school together under the cherry blossom trees. 'The weather is really great today,' I thought.

When school ended, Melissa and I decided to go to the new cafe that opened near her house.

I took out my book from my bag to read while walking to the cafe. "Noire! That's a bad habit. I told you that you may get into a accident if you don't carefully look where you're walking," Melissa angrily scolded me.

I put my book back into my bag until we arrived to the cafe. "Do you want to transfer to another school that badly?" Melissa asked me.

"The school in the countryside is near my parent's workplace," I smiled sadly.

"But that means I'll be alone," Melissa pouted.

"Well that school is ranked really high so I think it'll take a while for me to acc.u.mulate enough points to enter anyways," I tried to console her.

When we finished eating our cakes, I took my book out of my bag from habit and started to cross the street when the light was white as it indicated that it was time for pedestrians to cross.

I felt sudden sprinkles of rain on my head as I found a person speeding in a old antique towards my direction. 'Wow, no one actually drives a car nowadays,' I thought.

I instantly became blinded by the bright headlight as the light flashed in front of my face as I wondered if this was the 'end'.

"Noire!" Melissa screamed as she pushed me out back to the sidewalk.

The rain suddenly started to heavily pour down the streets as I saw myself staring at a unconscious girl covered in blood underneath a old antique.

'Huh? That's not Melissa. Melissa was just beside me a few seconds ago.'

I dropped onto my knees as I suddenly lost strength in my feet and cried underneath the pouring rain.

"I told you that children from the first district were creepy," Jack whispered softly to me.

"Well seeing that she's our best option for now, maybe we should just agree to her terms," I mumbled while recalling the incident.

The doll-like girl who disappeared from our grasps was the only hope for now as I whispered to Melissa, "I'll make sure you'll get better. You have to... or else what am I going to do without you?"